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If you’re looking for something different to read, try Curious Incidents in the Garden at Night-Time : The Fantastic Story of the Disappearing Night by Allan Shepherd. Published by the Centre for Alternative Technology Publications, it starts off as an extended short story – the story of an amateur naturalist who is passionate about moths, and who has designed his garden to contain night-scented plants which will attract them. Each night he records the species he captures, (he doesn’t kill them, just collects and records the species then lets them go), and notes which ones are slowly disappearing due to global warming and other factors. The blurb on the cover uses words like magical, eloquent and beautifully written and I’d add beautifully illustrated and designed. At the end of the book Shepherd lists his inspirations, which are The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time, The Little Prince, To Kill a Mockingbird, Walden and the film It’s a Wonderful Life. If you know these and can imagine them all rolled up into one book, that’s what this book is. And like these books, the overall feeling is positive. He’s talking about the extinction of thousands of species, but the end of the story suggests that there is, after all, hope. 
The unusual part of the book, though, is not the story at all. The moth collector keeps a notebook on ecology, called the Memory Book. The second part of Curious Incidents … are extracts from the Memory Book, which is partially on gardening – in particular creating a garden to attract wildlife in general and moths in particular – partially on evolution, global warming, and partially on the moth collector’s own memories (though these extracts are included in the first half rather than the second). It includes extracts from other writers, results of the moth collector’s own research, web references, and lovely illustrations.
I received the book as a present, and it couldn’t have been better chosen - thank you, Alison. You can find it on Amazon, along with some other of Shepherd's books. I think The Little Book of Garden Villains looks quite fun …
At the beginning of the year I promised to tell you each month what was on the super plant calendar which I got for Christmas. The plant on the January page is sage – salvia officinalis.
Officinalis in the name means that it’s considered a medicinal plant, and in fact the calendar specifically features plants which can be used in herbal remedies. The name salvia comes from the Latin verb meaning to save and, according to the calendar, there’s an Arab proverb which says Why should anyone die when they’ve got sage in the garden? - although Wikipedia attributes that one to Martin Luther. There’s also supposed to be an English saying which goes Eat sage in May and you’ll not die, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it before.
Most of the remedies the calendar describes were already familiar – sage is good in a mouthwash for sore throats, inflamed gums and so on. But it also said that it’s good for the digestion and that it contains flavenoids which fight free radicals and strengthen the immune system. And the one that I hadn’t heard of at all was that, combined in a tea with other ingredients it helps stop hot flashes during the menopause. The recipe for that was to combine 20g each of sage, hops, hawthorn, lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), and downy hemp nettle, and combine 2 tablespoons of the mixture with hot water. Let it stand for five minutes before straining. Two hours before going to bed, you drink two cups of the stuff, lukewarm. Can’t say I’ve tried it because I’m not sure where to get my hands on some downy hemp nettle, but if I do I’ll let you know if it works. We’ll see if the medicinal sections are a bit more authoritative than the proverbs.
Joking apart, if you do want to try it, the writer (Ursel Buehring) is a well-known German writer and presenter of TV programmes on herbal remedies, so she should know what she’s talking about. On some of the other pages there are warnings about possible side effects and so on, but nothing is mentioned here. I’ve checked all the herbs though, and it seems you should be careful of hawthorn if you’re already on heart medication, and hops if you suffer from depression. And don’t be tempted to go and pick downy hemp nettle yourself unless you’re sure you know what you’re doing – other members of the genus are poisonous. All in all, perhaps I’ll give this one a miss – but I’ve added links to descriptions of the herbs if you want to check them out for yourselves.
If you’re looking for something different to read, try Curious Incidents in the Garden at Night-Time : The Fantastic Story of the Disappearing Night by Allan Shepherd. Published by the Centre for Alternative Technology Publications, it starts off as an extended short story – the story of an amateur naturalist who is passionate about moths, and who has designed his garden to contain night-scented plants which will attract them. Each night he records the species he captures, (he doesn’t kill them, just collects and records the species then lets them go), and notes which ones are slowly disappearing due to global warming and other factors. The blurb on the cover uses words like magical, eloquent and beautifully written and I’d add beautifully illustrated and designed. At the end of the book Shepherd lists his inspirations, which are The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time, The Little Prince, To Kill a Mockingbird, Walden and the film It’s a Wonderful Life. If you know these and can imagine them all rolled up into one book, that’s what this book is. And like these books, the overall feeling is positive. He’s talking about the extinction of thousands of species, but the end of the story suggests that there is, after all, hope. 
The unusual part of the book, though, is not the story at all. The moth collector keeps a notebook on ecology, called the Memory Book. The second part of Curious Incidents … are extracts from the Memory Book, which is partially on gardening – in particular creating a garden to attract wildlife in general and moths in particular – partially on evolution, global warming, and partially on the moth collector’s own memories (though these extracts are included in the first half rather than the second). It includes extracts from other writers, results of the moth collector’s own research, web references, and lovely illustrations.
